Once upon a drabble
by slickchick84
Summary: Four drabbles written for prompts over at LJ. Ranges from happy to sad, boring to hopefully not so boring. Brooke/Sam pairing in all four.


**So because I'm pretty damn bored and have absolutely nothing better to do at 10 at night, I'm posting all my Popular drabbles for the sake of having all my fic in one central location. The title of each fic is the prompt given over on LJ where I originally posted them.**

**I do not own Popular or its characters, I've simply borrowed and butchered them for my own pleasure.**

**Rating? Uhm, lets say the four drabbles rate from PG to PG-13.**

Clocks.

Once upon a time, all Brooke had was clocks. Clocks and time and a steady beeping rhythm on a monitor indicating that there was life, though that life was trapped somewhere in space and time and dreams.

During the day she'd sit and stare at the clock on the wall, anxiously waiting for the little hand to strike a certain number that would indicated visiting time. Then she'd spend an hour or two wishing that time would slow, would maybe even seize to exist, just so she could stay where she was perched on a bed looking down at her sleeping savior.

Yet time does not stop. It flows, it evolves, it keeps on ticking away just like the beep of the monitor, but it does not stop.

Then one day you're sitting in your usual spot, her hand in it's familiar hold in your own, when something does stop.

The beep.

You breathe and cry and curse the time you did have, the time you wasted, the time you spent fighting when you should have just loved her.

Now you have time (though you've broken all the clocks in the house) and you wish it away, because the time and the clocks and the shade of the sun outside your window all tell you that she might be gone, but you're here and your life is going on despite how empty it is without Sam there beside you.

- - - -

Diapers

"Oh my God, that's disgusting!"

Brooke grimly nodded her head as she maneuvered the diaper from underneath Mac, making sure none of the caramel colored, gooey stuff escaped its confines. There was no way in hell she'd get that stuff _anywhere_ on her and _not_ throw up!

"And the smell! How can you stand it? I'm_ so _never having kids."

Sam's face was scrunched up as she stood and watched Brooke change the baby's nappy. Her stomach was making uncomfortable turns each time she caught a wiff of the dirty diaper and she found herself looking around desperately for anything to mask the smell.

In the end it seemed she was left with only one option and that was the blond hair at the nape of Brooke's neck.

Brooke almost squeezed half the bottle of baby powder onto the giggling and gurgling Mac, the little girls face a sudden mask of surprise as she abruptly sneezed.

"Uh...Sammy, what are you doing?"

Brooke was blinking in time with Mac, her own surprise evident at finding Sam's face pressed up against the back of her neck as the girl breathed deeply, her nose nuzzling Brooke's sensitive skin and setting it alight.

"I'm sniffing you."

Sam moved her body up and against Brooke's back, getting lost in the rather lovely sent of strawberry that drifted from Brooke's hair, completely unaware of the sudden flood of emotion that she'd triggered in the cheerleader.

"Uh...why?"

Sam smiled and Brooke could actually _feel_ the way her full mouth curved against her skin, her hormones almost on overload at the thought.

She was five seconds away from just jumping Sam and ravishing her. Having a secret, unrequited love for her extremely hot step-sister was seriously testing her self restraint these days.

"'Cos you smell better than crap."

It was the nicest thing Sam had said to Brooke all day and she basically came undone.

It was Sam blinking in surprise minutes later when Brooke finally stopped kissing her.

"Huh. So...we should do that again sometime."

Brooke cocked one eyebrow and gave a smirk, the blush on Sam's face and her heavy breathing reassuring her.

"Kissing or changing diapers?"

Sam gave a wobbly smile as she slumped against a wall, her legs turned jelly by the look Brooke was giving her.

"Surprisingly enough I'm thinking as long as it's with you, I'd love to do either."

Both girls just stood smiling at each other, completely unaware of the fact that Mac had rolled over and onto her dirty diaper.

- - - -

Pills (sucky version one which is pretty damn boring).

The pills did many things to Sam.

Things like make her drowsy, her warm brown eyes heavy lidded and smoky, while a sleepy smile spread on her perfectly full lips as she always seemed to melt into her mattress and comforter.

Brooke looked down at the seemingly merged form of the bed and Sam and smiled. Sam had saved her life, had pushed her hard to the pavement and took a hit meant for her. Luckily, Sam had already been halfway out of harms way, pushed forward towards Brooke by her own speed and momentum.

Still, the car had clipped her, breaking her left leg in three places. Hence the pills to help for the pain.

So there stood Brooke, waiting for her all time favorite effect the pills had on Sam to take place.

"Come on, Princess, I wanna snuggle."

The words came slow and measured, like Sam had to really concentrate to form them in her mouth as the medication had her halfway to La-La land already. Brooke did as she was asked and snuggled in, Sam immediately attaching herself like an octopus would, arms tight and warm around her.

Brooke savored these moments, having Sam so close to her, her scent and heat surrounding her. She didn't fully understand it herself, but ever since she watched the EMT load a cursing Sam into that ambulance, her view of the girl had changed.

Sam was something...precious. She was smart and challenging, nosy and annoying, but Brooke new that night without a doubt that her life would somehow be cold and empty without Sam. So when the pills turned Sam into a needy four year old, Brooke took advantage of it to the fullest.

She felt Sam stir, her hand clenching the warm skin at Brooke's side where Sam's fingers had slipped in under her shirt

"Love you, Princess..."

Brooke blinked back tears as she leaned up and kissed the semi unconscious Sam on the forehead gently.

"Love you too, Sammy..."

And she meant it with her whole heart and soul.

- - - -

Pills (version 2 which I greatly preferred to version 1).

Sam hated pills.

She hated pills and capsules and injections and doctor's with cold hands touching flesh that did not belong to them. She hated physical therapy, hated the sweat and tears that came with learning to do things that a two year old could do. Simple things like walking and bending and standing up without muscles straining and quivering painfully.

Yet of all the things she hated, she hated her own inability to move that second faster the most. If she had opened her mouth and warned Brooke sooner, or maybe tried following her out quicker, she could have prevented it all.

The pills and doctors and Brooke's tired, pain filled eyes were all her fault.

She looked down at Brooke, taking in every fresh, pink scar as she lay submerged in warm water.

"Am I ugly?"

Brooke's voice was soft, unsure, and Sam hated that as well. Hated that Brooke now doubted herself like that.

"No, you're beautiful. Strong and beautiful."

She found herself kneeling next to the bath, her hand drifting to a naked, bended knee. She traced the visible line that ran from Brooke's knee to mid thigh, her hand shaking gently as she did. In Sam's eyes, Brooke would never be anything but the most beautiful girl in the world.

"I don't believe you."

Sam closed her eyes, her chest aching with guilt and love in equal measures as her hand slipped higher up Brooke's thigh.

"I'll make you believe me."

She kissed Brooke then, warm and lovingly, hoping that it would somehow do what all the pills and doctors in the world couldn't seem to do. Fix Brooke.

And slowly, with every kiss and gentle thrust of her fingers, with every tear that bled from Brooke's eyes, Sam helped put all the broken pieces back together again.

No pill or cure was better than simple love in the end.

- - - -

**So yeah, there we go. My rather pitiful attempt at Popular fic. Still, it's better than nothing I guess. **

**Make an old woman happy and tell me which drabble you preferred, please?**


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